McLeish on brink of new Blues deal

10 September 2010 05:31

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irmingham manager Alex McLeish has admitted he is close to finally signing a new contract with the Premier League club.[LNB] McLeish started talks over a new deal before the end of last season after steering City to promotion and then establishing them in the top flight.[LNB]But it is only now the former Scotland boss appears ready to put pen to paper on a new deal.[LNB]McLeish, whose side entertain Liverpool on Sunday, said: "Talks have progressed and I'm just inches away from signing a new contract.[LNB]"The figures and everything are fine. We've just got to iron out the rough edges.[LNB]"We're pretty close and there are just a couple of technicalities - a release clause and that kind of thing - but it's not excessive from either camp and it's absolutely standard.[LNB]"Contracts are not something I like talking about in public, but it will be nice to get it resolved."[LNB]McLeish admits the talks appear to have taken longer than expected to be concluded.[LNB]He said: "I think it was just the timing of the announcement that we were going to have talks in the middle of a hectic season.[LNB]"We've kind of let things peter out until the end of the season and then we couldn't pin a date down because either my representatives were busy or (chairman) Peter Pannu's side was busy.[LNB]"That kind of wasted a lot of time, but, to be honest, we've only really sat down four or five times to talk about it."[LNB]McLeish has not ruled out recent signing Aleksandr Hleb for the game against the Reds despite him suffering a leg injury when on duty for Belarus against Romania in midweek.[LNB]And the City manager believes the former Arsenal player could have the same sort of influence as Christophe Dugarry, who spent a successful spell at St Andrew's under Steve Bruce.[LNB]McLeish said: "He has the capabilities of doing that. His team-mates will want to show him how good they are.[LNB]"I saw him play for Belarus against Scotland a couple of times. They actually beat us once at Hampden Park and, on that day, he was very influential.[LNB]"We needed new players. We needed them because, if we get injuries or suspensions, we would leave ourselves short."[LNB]